The Best New NYC Restaurants of 2014

As the year draws to a close, there are two things that have New York restaurant fiends buzzing: The shuttering of the classic Broadway coffee shop Cafe Edison, and the triumphant, phoenix-from-the-ashes return of Mission Chinese on the Lower East Side. It’s the cruelty and hope of NYC dining thrown into stark relief—while we mourn the loss of storied institutions, the excitement of regeneration and promise of new flavors keeps us coming back for more. We may cry along the way, but we cling to the idea that if we just keep on eating, we’ll eventually find what we’re looking for.

And so, once again, we have a crop of newcomers here to battle it out in the country’s craziest restaurant market. Some of them—like the sit-down spinoff of the venerable Russ & Daugters, and the already-timeless red-sauce joint Il Falco in Long Island City—seem equipped for the long haul. Others are so fiercely of-the-moment that it’s impossible to know how their oxtail spring rolls (Tuome) and corn-husk merengues (Cosme) will age. Either way, one thing’s certain: These are the best new restaurants in NYC that you should be eating at right now.

Upland

Neighborhood: Flatiron
Address and phone: 345 Park Ave South (212-686-1006)
Website:uplandnyc.com
Stephen Starr, the incredibly successful Philly restaurateur whose too-big, too-shiny NYC ventures (El Vez, Buddakan) have largely misread the city's dining personality up until this point, may have finally hit the bullseye with Upland. It helps that he's teamed up with Justin Smillie, whose Flintstones-esque short rib and deft hand with pastas rocketed Il Buco Alimentari e Vino to stardom. The room is still too big, but Smillie's food makes everyone lean in close, whether they're admiring the delicate presentation of sea scallop plated on its shell, inhaling the intense aromas of chicken-liver pasta, or fighting for the last slice of 'nduja pizza. The chef ostensibly pays homage to his California roots while calling upon his broader culinary arsenal; you can see the flourishes in the acidic little gems salad, the hyper-seasonal vegetable veneration, and the careful application of Asian ingredients like gochujang in the seafood stew. Whatever you call the cuisine, it's pure Smillie—and it's solid gold.—RHOrder this: Crackling porcelet (a.k.a., the best pork chop we've had all year, assisted by the thick strip of shatteringly crisp skin still attached); live sea scallop; beef tartare with puffed farro and anchovy; 'nduja pizza

Root & Bone

Neighborhood: East Village
Address and phone: 200 E 3rd St (646-682-7076)
Website:rootnbone.comTop Chef alum Jeff McInnis' Root & Bone is perfectly suited to the Kings of Leon blasting through the place last time we were there: A romantic, big-ballad pop tribute to the South that's as populist as it is polished. Moving away from the big-box fashions of his former joint Yardbird in Miami, McInnis' new menu is more focused. Shrimp and grits—a tired, over-fetishized dish in New York—is surprisingly delicate and briny; the mac and cheese is a gooey exercise in maximalism, topped with a "biscuit thyme crust” (whatever—it's great); a rye cocktail gets muddled with charred peaches. You get the idea: City on the head, country on the heart. But you're there for New York’s most compelling new entry to the fried-chicken stakes—brined in garlic, onions, and sweet tea, then finished with a dusting of dehydrated lemon powder. It does the bird justice: A gilded, soaring afterlife for a once flightless beast, in which tangy, succulent sweetness clashes with peppery bite.—FKOrder this: Fried chicken, shrimp and grits, mac and cheese, whiskey cobbler

Marta

Neighborhood: Flatiron
Address and phone: 29 E 29th St, inside Martha Washington Hotel (212-651-3800)
Website:martamanhattan.comDanny Meyer and chef Nick Anderer established their dream-team status at Maialino, the Gramercy Hotel’s bastion of Roman cuisine. Their follow-up effort cranked up the hype machine even further by taking aim at a food that local critics and residents hold dearly: pizza. In challenging palates with a largely unrepresented pizza type—Roman—the duo managed to tap into latent desires while opening new horizons. The carbonara pie (topped with guanciale, percorino, and egg) exemplifies the robustness of Anderer’s thin crusts: While the edges exhibit the crisp, cracker-like texture associated with Roman pizza, the main body of his pies are reassuringly chewy and sturdy enough for heavy experimentation. Beyond the two wood-burning ovens, an open-fire grill facilitates a healthy range of meat-driven entrees, like an excellent mixed grill (salsicce miste) of chicken, lamb, and ground-pork sausage served atop rapini. Further proof that Meyer and his team didn't slack on any of the details: One of the city's most thoughtful restaurant beer lists, with off-the-moment local brews like Peekskill Simple Sour and Finback Le Porter Kaldi leading the charge.—NSOrder this: Polpettine di coniglio, margherita classica, patate alla carbonara, salsicce miste

Il Falco

Neighborhood: Long Island City, Queens
Address and phone: 21-50 44th Dr (718-707-0009)
Website:ilfalcolic.com
Blame it on the borough: By all rights, Il Falco should be riding high on the same red-sauce hype wave that turned Carbone into a media darling last year. Instead, this Long Island City spot from two former Il Mulino chefs has quietly made itself a neighborhood destination for old-school Queensites and LIC gentrifiers alike; it's always popping, but you're never going to have to arm-wrestle Zac Posen for a table. With a fleet of tuxedoed waiters commanding the brick-fireplaced, terra cotta-colored dining room, Il Falco nails all the gloriously kitschy details, right down to the mason jar of house-made limoncello that gets toted to every table after dessert (pro tip: ask for the grappa instead). Pastas are finished in the dining room for maximum theatrics, and a cart laden with massive wheels of cheese, fresh langoustines, and other delicacies adds to the ceremony.—RHOrder this: Veal chop parmigiana; pappardelle with ragu (the meat changes regularly—it's been wild boar recently, but they're all worth your time); spaghetti carbonara; the most delicate tiramisu this side of the East River

Cosme

Neighborhood: Flatiron
Address and phone: 35 E 21st St (212-913-9659)
Website:cosmenyc.com
Despite seeking out cutting-edge kitchens during their travels, New Yorkers remain skeptical when those same international superstar chefs open restaurants on our home turf. But Mexico City prodigy Enrique Olvera and his white-hot restaurant Cosme (booked solid before it had even opened) is a rare exception. Once home to a strip club, this stark, sexy space has fast emerged as the city’s epicenter for imaginative Mexican cooking. Here, traditional queso is shunned for creamy burrata dressed with salsa verde, and cobia, instead of pork, gets the al pastor treatment. Duck carnitas will have you considering a repeat order, but save some room for Cosme's showstopping dessert: a husk meringue oozing earthy corn mousse. Clearly, Olvera has plans to stick around for a while; we're lucky to have him.—AKOrder this: Cobia al pastor, enfrijoladas, burrata and weeds, duck carnitas, husk meringue

Russ & Daughters Cafe

Neighborhood: Lower East SideAddress and phone: 127 Orchard St (212-475-4881)Website:russanddaughterscafe.com
After 100 years of being in business, the greatest appetizing shop known to mankind finally gave us a place to sit. And what a place to it is: Transportive without devolving into kitsch, refined but never fussy, dotted with art-deco fixtures, cozy booths, and soda-fountain trimmings. The food, meanwhile, is the same stellar stuff you’ve been ordering for years: Smoked salmon, bagels, whitefish salad, chopped liver with matzoh. Even “new” recipes (pastrami salmon on a pretzel roll, knishes, egg dishes, halvah ice cream) are astute modern takes on some very old tastes. And the egg cream? Instant classic. We can tell you—with no amount of uncertainty—that this restaurant, more than any other on this list, is likely to be around for the next 100 years.—FKOrder this: Sandwich boards, chopped liver, potato latkes, soft-scrambled eggs and caviar, egg cream

Cherche Midi

Neighborhood: Nolita
Address and phone: 282 Bowery (212-226-3055)
Website:cherchemidiny.com
Even in a year of splashy, pseudo-French openings like Dirty French and French Louie, Keith McNally eventually found a way to come out on top—that's just what he does. After shuttering one of his rare misses, Pulino's Bar & Pizzeria, in the same space, he returned to his French bistro sweet spot and gave us a Balthazar for people who are too young, or too jaded, to go to Balthazar anymore.The restaurant has all of the hallmarks of a classic McNally Joint™, like warm, soft lighting and mirrors that magnify the buzz—but none of the unbearable noise you would expect in a restaurant located on the corner of one of New York’s busiest intersections. Chefs Shane McBride and Daniel Parilla excel at soul-satisfying dishes like crispy frogs legs with green-garlic velouté; fat mussels steamed with Pernod and caramelized fennel; and a dry-aged prime-rib burger that's super-funky and unfathomably juicy. The next time you feel like feasting on steak frites and sipping Burgundy Grand Cru in the middle of what feels like an exclusive after party, McNally's got your back.—EMOrder this: Frogs' legs, pot de fromage, bouchot mussels, prime-rib burger, roasted cauliflower with sauce gribiche

Arepa Lady

Neighborhood: Elmhurst, Queens
Address and phone: 77-02AA Roosevelt Ave (347-730-6124)
Twitter:@arepalady
You know a place is worth your time when it doesn't bother with an artful, self-conscious name: Arepa Lady gets to the point. A longtime fixture of the late-night food cart scene in Jackson Heights, the Colombian matron drew crowds who stood patiently in line under the 7 train tracks for her ultra-light, intensely flavored arepas de choclo (sweet corn pancakes folded over the meat of your choice) and butter-soaked arepas de queso (savory, dense cakes stuffed with melty cheese), each one patted out lovingly by her hand only. Now that you can get those same handmade miracles under a roof, with comfortable seats and reliable hours, our prayers have been answered. If your experience with arepas is limited to those street-fair hockey pucks they sell next to tube socks and lemonade, head to Elmhurst and get schooled by a member of the Arepa Lady family.—RHOrder this: Arepa de queso; arepa de choclo with chorizo (don't sleep on the squeeze bottles of hot sauce they bring out—the garlicky green sauce is an ideal complement to the mild queso)

Decoy

Neighborhood: West Village
Address and phone: 529-1/2 Hudson St (212-691-9700)
Website:decoynyc.com
While not quite as iconic as the dirty-water dog and the corner slice, Peking duck occupies a sacred place in the NYC foodscape. Unfortunately, iconic doesn't always mean delicious: At many of the Chinatown restaurants advertising the dish, the birds are pre-cooked, then reheated and flash-fried, resulting in a depressingly dried-out interior. Just as they did with dim sum at Red Farm, chef Joe Ng and restaurateur Ed Schoenfeld have tweaked the formula ingeniously, cooking their communal duck feasts to order so that they can achieve the ideal balance of shatteringly crispy skin and moist meat. It’s a triumph on its own, but the rest of the spread—excellent barrel-aged cocktails, a Chinese-Jamaican spin on jerk chicken—makes Decoy our favorite new place to eat with a crew.—CS

Black Seed Bagels

Neighborhood: NolitaAddress and phone: 170 Elizabeth St (212-730-1950)Website:blackseedbagels.com
If even a handful of New Yorkers can embrace Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, then surely there's room in the conversation for Montreal-style bagels. After winning over pastrami loyalists with their Canadian-Jewish spin on smoked meat, Mile End Deli teamed up with downtown cool kids The Smile to take on another of the NYC untouchables—and, damn, did they stick the landing. A wood-burning oven is the rightful centerpiece of the handsome space, signaling pride in process and evoking Montreal's famed St-Viateur Bagel. After being boiled in honey water and placed on the hearth, the bagels emerge from the oven with a crunchy, slightly sweet shell. They're smaller and denser than their NYC counterparts, but with just enough interior chew to make them endearingly recognizable. With Stumptown coffee, tobiko caviar cream cheese, and beet-cured lox rounding out the offerings, Black Seed delivers something we never knew we were waiting for: a proudly contemporary bagel shop that deftly combines Montreal craftsmanship and New York swagger.—JBOrder this: The No. 3 sandwich (tobiko spread, salmon, butter lettuce); radish salad; toasted sesame bagel with butter and smoked trout (a.k.a., the Canadian Classic)

Meadowsweet

Neighborhood: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Address and phone: 149 Broadway (718-384-0673)
Website:meadowsweetnyc.comFresh, sustainable food is a dime a dozen in Brooklyn, but Polo Dobkin—who used to cook at Williamsburg pioneer Dressler in the same space—gives farmers-market produce surprising and sophisticated spins. Start with Middle Eastern-style roasted beets, accentuated by labneh and za'atar, then move onto ricotta "cuscino": a singular square of homemade ravioli resting in an umami-jacked Parmesan broth.Hanger steak is no stranger to dinner menus, but the one here, accompanied by potato puree and onion jam, is cranked to 11. The presence of an indoor herb garden might look like a Brooklyn design shtick, but here it's a refreshingly honest reflection of a veteran chef's passion for Mediterranean-inspired seasonality.—AAOrder this: Grilled hanger steak, St. Louis ribs, crispy baby artichokes, roasted beets, hand-rolled ricotta "cuscino," roasted pumpkin ice-cream pie

Narcissa

Neighborhood: East Village
Address and phone: 21 Cooper Square (212-228-3344)
Website:narcissarestaurant.com
Chef John Fraser was already well known for his vegetable cookery at Dovetail, but it took a migration downtown to André Balazs' Standard Hotel in the East Village to give it the sex appeal it's been missing. It helps that Frasier gets his ingredients from a private farm 90 miles north of Manhattan, which boasts a bounty of flavor-packed produce that finds its way into intensely earthy, beautifully balanced dishes like rotisserie-cooked beets with dill oil and horseradish cream. There’s unimpeachable meat to be found at Narcissa, too, but we’d order the cumin and cardamom-inflected carrots Wellington as a main over the baby chicken any day. After worshipping at the meatless altar, you'll feel better about diving into dessert: Chef Deborah Racicot incorporates savory elements into knockout sweets like toasted-fennel cheesecake, and a bittersweet chocolate tart with curry-roasted bananas and espresso ice cream.—EM

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